The present invention relates to pneumatic hammers, of the type used for boring into earthen formations.
It is common for such hammers to cycle pneumatic pressure to lift a piston within a casing, and aided by gravity, then drive the piston downward against a bit, which breaks up earthen material to be dislodged and removed from the borehole. In general, valving or porting are used to switch the location of the pneumatic pressure between the retraction phase and the actuation or drive phase of the piston. In order to increase the impacts per unit time, efforts have been made to begin establishing retraction pressure before impact in the actuation phase. Unfortunately, this decreases to some extent the force of impact inasmuch as the initial ramping of the backpressure for retraction counteracts the pneumatic drive pressure applied to the impact.